Data Sources for the At-Risk Community-Dwelling Patient Population

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Many patients who live in the community and need some degree of medical assistance may be unable to manage if their resources or services are depleted during a mass casualty event (MCE). Patients who are not directly affected by an MCE but who have daily medical needs, those who cannot manage their medical needs in a shelter, and those who do not have family caregivers are likely to seek care at hospitals that will already be burdened by caring for people directly affected by the MCE. This study investigates data sources to enumerate and estimate the number of people who, though not directly affected by an MCE, might seek hospital care during an MCE. The report summarizes findings about the availability of data to quantify the at-risk community population.

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Prepared by:
Abt Associates

Lead Investigators:
Richard Zane, MD
Paul Biddinger, MD

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Summary of Data Availability
   2.1. Functional Needs
   2.2. Medical Needs
       2.2.1. Medical Needs Subgroups and Data Sources
   2.3. Psychosocial Needs
   2.4. Children
   2.5. Summary
3. An Alternative Method for Estimating the At-Risk Population
4. Recommendations
Bibliography

Funding to support Data Sources for the At-Risk Community-Dwelling Patient Population was provided by an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality contract to Abt Associates (contract no. 290-02-0600-011).

The authors of this report are responsible for its content. No statement in the report should be construed as an official position of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

This document is in the public domain and may be used and reprinted without permission except those copyrighted materials noted, for which further reproduction is prohibited without specific permission of copyright holders.

AHRQ Publication No. 11-MO21-EF
Current as March 2011